


Red & Copper

by poisonling



Category: Steam Powered Giraffe, SteamWorld Heist
Genre: F/F, Forgive Me, the ship i never knew i needed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-12
Updated: 2016-05-11
Packaged: 2018-06-01 18:57:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6532243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poisonling/pseuds/poisonling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In lieu of a night spent in misery with the crew, Piper takes a night to herself at Lola's. The last thing she was expecting to come from the night was becoming smitten with a nameless copper bot she didn't even exchange words with. These things have a funny way of working out, however.</p><p>On hiatus/canceled.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. She Hasn't Slept For Days

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [I Only Saw Her Once; That Was All I Needed](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6451651) by [klaviergavout](https://archiveofourown.org/users/klaviergavout/pseuds/klaviergavout). 



> To be fair, I'm only about two hours into the game. Liberties have been taken with the canon because of this.
> 
> But I'll be damned if I don't ship this thanks to the existing fic.

Piper Faraday, exhausted as a bot could find herself, sashayed into Lola's with an air of exaggerated confidence about her. It wasn't the day to give in to the appearance of comfort - one couldn't know who was watching at any given moment. However, Piper allowed herself to slump against the bar with Sea Brass at her side, strangely silent. The bar was near empty, and Taps stood with rapt attention towards the darkened stage, her body rolling around idly as she did so.

"What's caught your eye, Taps?" asked Sea Brass, splitting the thick silence. 

"Performers," Taps replied in a dazed tone. She seemed to snap out of it as quickly as she'd entered it. "I hear they're on some kind of tour. Have crossed half the quadrant, and now they're in the Colony." Taps emitted a low mechanical noise. "I'm sure they'd be quite the lot to talk to, given how far they've come..."

Piper, who'd retained her silence through the brief conversation, removed her hat and set it on the bar before her, taking a seat. Sea Brass followed her lead, catching Taps's attention yet again.

"What can I get you two tonight?" she asked, ever the diligent barkeep.

"The usual," Piper and Sea Brass murmured in unison. Taps nodded and glided away with her back to the duo.

The captain's eyes slid towards the stage, where the lights remained dim. No one seemed to mind the dull clammor of the band setting up their equipment. Piper found the noise vaguely comforting, and the methodic motion of the bots moving about the stage near therapeutic. On the stage, off the stage, then back on again - each time with a new piece of musical equipment in their hands. Piper, not being a musician herself, hadn't the slightest idea of what sort of entertainment the band would truly bring. 

"The usual, for my two favorite patrons," Taps said with a smile in her tone as she slid two shot glasses of oil in front of Sea Brass and Piper. "You're awful quiet tonight. Something on your minds?"

Sea Brass, catching the hint from Piper's soft mood, spoke. "Long day. Aye, wasn't as profitable as we'd hoped, either..."

The captain's eyes locked onto one of the bots scuttling across the stage, the one holding a guitar-like instrument with keys across the body rather than strings. She was primarily copper, and far from delicate looking. However, she didn't seem to be put together quite right. Some of her parts were too big and brash for her overall build, as though she'd been scrapped more than once in her life. Who would have expected a musicbot to have been scrapped even once in her life, though?

Beyond the outer build, the copper bot seemed damaged in terms of wiring, which was what had originally caught Piper's attention in the first place. She seemed unable to control her body completely, and powered down after completing a few tasks, at which point the silver one of her two companions would open a panel in her back and restart her. 

After what felt like too long, Piper pulled her eyes away from the stage and back to her drink, which she downed in a single gulp. Sea Brass and Taps were still engaged in conversation, and Piper had good enough mind to leave them be. She hadn't much to say anyway - Sea Brass was absolutely right in what he'd said to Taps. The swag was hardly worth the trouble, the gallons too few to be worth the bounty and wasted ammo. It had indeed been a long day, to say the least.

\--

Lola's filled up as the evening matured, and bots filled up the area around the stage. The lights had finally flickered on, illuminating the space where the musicbots had yet to appear. The instruments gleamed. Piper hadn't moved from her place at the bar, but Sea Brass had asked permission to return to the ship with Wonky for the night. She, of course, had obliged him. 

A night off sounded more appealing to Piper, however. Every now and again, she had Taps refill her drink, but she was more eager to hear the band play at this point. Patrons who'd filed into the bar murmured good things about the band around her, and the anticipation built.

At last, Steam Powered Giraffe made their appearance.

First onto the stage was the tall, silver one - that was the one who'd kept the copper one running through setup. He had a guitar in his arms, but all the thing seemed to do was worsen his top-heavy condition. He swayed slightly as he moved. Following him was a stout, bronze bot with a circular boiler in his chest and a metal mustache attached to his face. 

Last onto the stage was the copper one Piper had seen earlier. A keytar, Piper had heard it called, was the instrument she was cradling in her hands. Her hands were somewhat thick for a musicbot, looking far less than delicate to hold such a pristine instrument, but once the music started up, Piper could hardly think of her hands.

The bot's voice was incredible. 

A smooth voice, something an old poet may have even called silky, glided through the air and into the gears of the bots in the bar. Her companions' bass and alto voices complimented and harmonized with her gracefully, and rapt attention was given to the band during their performance. Cheers followed the end of each song. 

An endless tour for a reason, Piper thought to herself. Steam Powered Giraffe captured the attention of even the most grizzly of patrons, and the music was really all that could be heard.

At the end of the night, the captain made her way back to her ship, where the crew awaited her. Wonky waited patiently at the wheel, while Sea Brass was stationed at his usual place near the front of the ship. Piper passed them both on her way to the captain's quarters, leaving them without a word.

But if you asked either of them, they would swear they heard their captain muttering under her breath, "Feels like I'm on top of the universe."


	2. But Don't Catch Her

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As a graduating senior of this year, I've had trouble finding the time and motivation to write the succeeding chapters of this story. Nevertheless, here's the next chapter, and I hope you enjoy!

For far too many years in their pasts, Peter Walter's creations were warbots. Jumping from conflict to battle with little downtime in between had taken effect on the docile bots - and to this day, the robots desired a peaceful life, free of battles and war machines. For decades, the Colonel's bots had just that: freedom from the war they so despised. Music became their new passion, as their programming was recalibrated and shifted to reflect the lives they so craved. They hoped to have peace in the Walter Manor forever.

But forever is a long time for a robot, and forever was far longer than they should have expected. Eventually, war found the robots yet again.

While they were able to spend their time traversing the vast confines of space, spreading music to weary and jaded steambots in bars far and wide, the threat of war still loomed maliciously over the heads of the members of Steam Powered Giraffe. Remembrances they could never outlive flashed across their CPUs whenever they began to forget the seiged land they found themselves in, and peace evaded them.

There was only one thing in this world, in any world, that the Walter robots could count on in this world: each other.

\--

The S.S. Biscuiteer, stationed behind Lola's Bar, was down. At the end of the night, after their show had ended and the stage had been disassembled, the steambots had attempted to return to their ship - Beebop then dryly reported to them that the interface system was malfunctioning. Because of this, there was to be no piloting, and the band would have to delay their trip to the next stop on the tour. Stuck at Lola's, at least for the night, Rabbit, Hatchworth, and the Spine made their way back into the bar.

"Thought you had to take off," Taps commented with a subtle look of surprise on her face. "Ship troubles?"

"We seem to have a malfunction in our interface system," replied the Spine, all but reciting Beebop's statement from earlier verbatim. "Our technicians are running tests right now to determine the cause as quickly as possible."

Taps gave a stiff nod, then rolled from side to side idly. The bar was nearly empty again, except for patrons. "I suppose I could give you bots a round on the house; your performance had the place twice as full as usual," she said, followed by a clarion, electronic tone. 

Rabbit was the first to take a seat at the bar, tapping her fingers rhythmically against the counter. She felt her gears grinding roughly and loudly; a glass of oil would do some good after such a long performance. Steam escaped from her mouth in a hissing noise - a few of the other bots at the bar looked over at her with apathy in their sockets, as if to wordlessly urge her to silence herself.

"Sure hope it isn't water deficiency in the tank," Taps continued as she returned to the bar with three tall glasses of oil in her hands. "Ain't much of that around here at all, and you'll have a hard time finding anyone who's willing to share."

"Thank you," said the Spine, lifting his glass towards her.

"On the house," she reminded him. She paused to give a meaningful look at each of the bots. Her tone dipped down as she resumed, effortlessly dramatic, "I do know of a steambot out there with some excess water and a heart of gold, if that turns out to be the problem."

"We'll let you know as soon as diagnostics are complete," the Spine said in smooth retort, shutting down Taps's dramatics in an instant. The last thing the bots wanted was to be in debt to some pirate or criminal while trapped in this foreign world.

\--

"Will we be takin' off soon, cap'n?" Sea Brass asked when Piper exited her quarters. He could tell by the look in her eyes, and not much more, that things weren't all right in the captain's mind - she was taking personally the dip in swag and loot lately, and feeling quite on edge. The night off hadn't helped her relax as much as they'd hoped. Sea Brass was quite in tune with the way his captain displayed her emotions, though they weren't right on her sleeves. They'd traveled together for some time now, and he felt quite akin to her in many ways. They both had a history, and he knew more than any other how seriously Piper took her job.

Piper let out an audible sigh after a heavy pause, followed by, "We don't have a heading yet." One couldn't tell from her voice the immense pressure she had placed herself under - smooth and firm in tone, she exuded inspiration from her boiler despite her current emotions. She reached an arm up towards her head, then reeled it back quickly. "Have you seen my hat?"

"No, ma'am, not since we were at Lola's," Sea Brass responded.

Piper, without a second thought, marched towards the ship's exit as Wonky reattached the ports prompty and wordlessly, as if reading the captain's thoughts. The captain didn't break stride as she entered the bar yet again that night.

The stage was darkened once again in the bar as Piper passed by, headed on a straightaway to the bar so she could grab her hat and be off. She hardly noticed who Taps was talking to - she merely called for Taps's attention, in the form of a chattery electrical sound, which had the barkeep turn swiftly to her.

"Thought you'd left," Taps said with vague surprise in her tone.

The captain, involuntarily taking a seat at the bar, sighed. "I seem to have forgotten my hat here."

"Right," came the reply as Taps ducked under the bar for a second. When she pulled herself upwards again, Piper's favored hat was in her grip. She placed it before the captain and returned to her idle mode. "Did you notice our guest performers have returned to the bar for the night?" she asked proudly, as if she was responsible for the band remaining in the area.

Piper's jaw nearly dropped off its hinges, quite literally, when she heard the news. It was almost exactly the reaction Taps had hoped for and, with another monotonous ring, she turned her back to Piper. The captain fell silent as her eyes drifted towards the copper bot she'd spent far too long staring at earlier in the night; her gears screeched in her chest as the grinding took to a speed she hadn't thought possible. The copper lady, who'd been referred to as "Rabbit" by the other musicbots onstage, was no longer an object off in the distance to blame her curiosity on; Piper was now guilty of abject impoliteness.

The acknowledgement of her own impolite stare wasn't enough to stop her - there was something oddly mesmerizing about Rabbit's stiff, yet fluid movements. It caught her rapt attention and held it prisoner; and when Rabbit giggled, oh so similarly to how she'd giggled during their performance yet more authentic, Piper knew she was beyond help.

A pirate captain like herself had fallen head over heels for a half-scrapped musicbot like Rabbit, and there was nothing she could do to change it. Just as Piper thought she would have to force restart herself to begin functioning like normal, coppery Rabbit turned her attention towards her and began making the way towards her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember to please leave comments and kudos if you like the story - it helps me decide if there's enough interest to continue writing. Thank you for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> More to come! This is the first fic I've posted on this account, so feel free to leave comments and we'll see if I post any more.
> 
> Have a good one!


End file.
